SEO is basically writing with extra steps

It’s funny how life goes full circle. My very first writing gig was back in early 2016. It was a simple job, editing a small quarterly niche newsletter. My job was predominantly to edit and format other people’s work, but I’d usually write an article for each episode.

I recall my client telling me to “optimize for SEO.” I was so clueless that I googled it and read a description of SEO, which basically made sense. Fast forward 8 1/2 years and here I am, still learning SEO. In fact, sometimes it seems like I haven’t learned anything at all. Of course, that is completely untrue.

My knowledge and understanding have increased by a staggering degree. at the same time, I’ve come to realize something important about it: the most fundamentally important skill in SEO is still the written word.

There are loads of walking factors to consider with SEO, but the single most important factor is the quality of the content.

If your content quality sucks, it doesn’t matter how optimized the content is. All of the technical aspects of SEO mean jack squat if nobody wants to read it.

So, I’m light of this, I’m thankful for the evolution of my understanding of SEO and content marketing. If you put the mechanics of SEO first, the product will not reach the desired outcome. This is putting the cart before the horse, the egg before the chicken.

In fact, good writing is the core element of all kinds of marketing. Email campaigns? Good writing. E-commerce? You guessed it. Product descriptions are always the written word.

While there are infinite silos of marketing and content creation that you can get into, writing is always at the center of them. And conversely, if you are already an established writer, it’s much easier to slide from one silo to another.

You can learn all you want about SEO, but if you are like me, the more you read, the more you see how muddled the waters get about technical aspects of it, whereas if you boil it all down, it is about writing something worth reading. If you consistently write things that are worth reading, hit publish a few times a week, and can sustain this for a long time, your website will get visits.

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